It’s time for our annual Prisoner Solidarity Postcard mailing. We invite you to join us as we take action and build power across prison walls!

Every year in the wintertime, Critical Resistance sends a note of solidarity, hope, and encouragement to all of the subscribers of The Abolitionist newspaper that are currently locked up in jails, detention centers, and prisons. This year we have over 5,800 postcards to send to our imprisoned comrades.

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Every year we spend over $2,000 on postage stamps to send political organizing resources to people inside. This fall, CR Oakland members initiated a new study group with imprisoned people inside, based on Black and Pink’s model. With 25 people in prisons across the country, 15 CR Oakland members and volunteers read articles from The Abolitionist newspaper, wrote study questions and responses, then facilitated discussion across prison compiling prisoners’ responses with member responses and analysis, to send back to the study group inside. Can’t make it but want to support? Make a gift for postage here (https://criticalresistance.networkforgood.com/projects/42158-critical-resistance-year-end-fundraiser) and dedicate it to CR Oakland. Your gifts will help us launch the second study group in January 2018!

Meditation, service & a transformative message from Minister Cherri Murphy & Reverend C. Michael Woodstock. Ro will be sharing her inspirational art & community awareness storytelling in an interactive experience as a part of the Wednesday evening service.
Open to all, would love to have you & your voice in the room

Join Oakland Privacy to organize against the surveillance state, police militarization and ICE, and to advocate for surveillance regulation around the Bay.

We fight against “pre-crime” and “thought-crime,” spy drones, facial recognition, police body cameras and requirements for “backdoors” to cellphones, to list just a few invasions of our privacy by all levels of Government.

We draft and push for privacy legislation for City Councils, at the County level, and in Sacramento. We advocate in op-eds and in the streets. We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and believe no one is illegal.

Oakland Privacy originally came together in 2013 to fight against the Domain Awareness Center, Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub. OP was instrumental in stopping the DAC from becoming a city-wide spying network.

If you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy email listserv, coming to a meeting, or have questions, send an email to:

“WATCHING YOU WATCHING US”

Oakland Privacy works regionally to defend the right to privacy and enhance public transparency and oversight regarding the use of surveillance techniques and equipment. This month Oakland Privacy will be preparing for the passage of transparency ordinances in Oakland and Berkeley and kicking off new processes in Richmond and Alameda County, To help slow down the encroaching police state all over the Bay Area, join us at the Omni.

This is a free event, however we are asking folks to register if they are attending so we can make sure we have enough materials and snacks for everyone. You can register here: https://bpt.me/3189568
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With the current manifestations of violence and hatred under the Trump administration and recent natural disasters as close as the North Bay, we are more concerned than ever about police violence and the racist, Islamophobic and militarized trainings that promote and enable police and emergency response with racism and weaponized violence.

Join us for a community discussion on policing in San Francisco. Co-hosted by SURJ SF and the Stop Urban Shield Coalition, we will be facilitating an interactive forum and discussion about the militarization of police in our city and the bay area training program Urban Shield.

Urban Shield is a controversial SWAT training and weapons exposition held every year in the Bay Area. SF police, fire and emergency responders attend annually. We will explore the tactics trained at Urban Shield and share alternative options for building health and wellbeing in our city. We will discuss the impacts of Urban Shield on our city, highlight the voices and deep insights of those who have lost loved ones to police violence and uplift the ways our communities are coming together to build resilience and safety. San Francisco is the fiscal sponsor of Urban Shield and has the power to end Urban Shield and invest in true community preparedness.

All are welcome! Come join us and learn how to be involved as we push San Francisco to pull out of Urban Shield! Food will be provided.

Access: Entrance and bathrooms are wheelchair accessible. Gender neutral bathroom and breast feeding space available. We will have low scent designated seating and ask that you come low or scent free. Please contact us with any other access needs or questions.

Want to get involved with SURJ Bay Area? SURJ moves white people to act for justice with passion and accountability as part of a multi-racial majority. Come learn about our current work and activities.

You’ll also hear about SURJ’s new pathways for entering the work, including Study and Action groups as well as committee work, upcoming workshops, and events. We’ll answer your questions and share how you can get involved in the movement for racial justice.

Address info:

The Sierra Club is located at 2101 Webster Street between 21st and 22nd Street in Oakland. The Sierra Club Offices are on the 13th floor. There is a bank of elevators that go to the 12th floor and above.

Getting Into the Lobby:

The doors for the Sierra Club building lock right at 7pm, so please do your best to arrive prior to 7pm. We will have someone stationed at the Webster entrance to the building until 7:15 for late arrivals. If you arrive after 7pm, please use the Webster entrance.

Accessibility:

Building Accessibility: There are two entrances to Sierra Club Office building on Webster and 21st both of which are accessible for mobility devices. The building has an elevator, and the kitchen space, conference room, and restrooms can also all accommodate mobility devices.

Scents: The Sierra Club’s space endeavors to offer a scent free environment; however as the Club is currently transitioning towards the use of only scent free products, we cannot guarantee an entirely scent-free space. We ask everyone to please arrive at meetings fragrance-free to support access for folks who experience multiple chemical sensitivities and allergies. This means using only body products and laundry detergent that say “fragrance-free” or “unscented” on the label and do not have scented ingredients.

Restrooms: Restrooms are currently labeled in a gender-binary way. The Sierra Club is working on changing this and has an office policy that all restrooms are available to anyone, regardless of lived or perceived gender identity. We ask that folks choose the restroom that is right for them, and that no one question a person’s chosen restroom.

Interested in learning about what Urban Shield is, the work of the coalition, and how to get involved? On Wednesday, December 13, SURJ San Francisco will be hosting a public Community Meeting on Policing and Urban Shield. There will be time to hear about what organizing against Urban Shield has looked like, next steps, and how you can support us in achieving a people’s victory over Urban Shield. We encourage organizations and community members in SF to attend this gathering so that we can all be well informed and best positioned to organize and win.Facebook page

Dr. Daniel Kammen, distinguished policy expert on energy and climate change, will report on the recently concluded Bonn Climate Conference on Wed., Dec 13, 7-9 pm in the Parlor Room of the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda, Berkeley. Dr. Kammen’s talk will be preceded by a holiday potluck. The Parlor Room is accessible from the parking lot behind the community building through the more southerly entrance.

Daniel Kammen is the Class of 1935 Distinguished Professor of Energy at the University of California, Berkeley, with parallel appointments in the Energy and Resources Group, the Goldman School of Public Policy, and the department of Nuclear Engineering. He was appointed the first Environment and Climate Partnership for the Americas (ECPA) Fellow by Secretary of State Hilary R. Clinton in April 2010.

Kammen is the founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL), Co-Director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment, and Director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center. Dr. Kammen has served as a contributing or coordinating lead author on various reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change since 1999. The IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He serves on the Advisory Committee for Energy & Environment for the X-Prize Foundation.

During 2010-2011 Kammen served as the World Bank Group’s Chief Technical Specialist for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency. He was appointed to this newly-created position in October 2010, in which he provided strategic leadership on policy, technical, and operational fronts. The aim is to enhance the operational impact of the Bank’s renewable energy and energy efficiency activities while expanding the institution’s role as an enabler of global dialogue on moving energy development to a cleaner and more sustainable pathway.

We know that wealth, power, and privilege are barriers to the kind of creativity we need in these times, and that nothing life-giving can come from an event designed as a profit opportunity for some at the expense of many. The plans seeded at this event will result in more displacement, gentrification, and cultural whitewashing of our city.

Unless we act. Unless we speak out. Unless we bring the deepest, truest vision we can muster and stake our lives on that, pledging our solidarity with people who have been or are now being displaced, listening to each other (and especially to those whose voices have historically been silenced), and taking care of each other.

Bring your visions for how we can do that, or just your desire to support the visions of Oaklanders, and join us outside the Marriott for an alternative “networking” event.

A FREE breakfast will be served outside because, in the future we envision, everyone will have enough to eat regardless of their ability to pay. (If you can, please bring a breakfast item to share; whether or not you can bring something, please come and be fed—physically, mentally, and spiritually.)

It is said that without a vision, the people will perish. We say: With a vision, the people of Oakland will live.

On Thursday, December 14th, Building Owners and Management Association East Bay – an organization of commercial building owners and real estate brokers – is holding its annual holiday party at the Oakland Rotunda Building, which is currently under boycott. Youth and workers have had enough of landlords and developers threatening our city with gentrification, pollution, and exploitation. We interrupt BOMA’s celebration to demand our rights and celebrate resilience.

Earlier this month, youth, workers, and community members launched a boycott of the Rotunda Building in response to the building owner Phil Tagami’s lawsuit against the City of Oakland seeking to build a coal terminal which would accelerate already catastrophic ecological destruction and spread toxic coal dust in predominantly working class communities and communities of color in Oakland.

Join us on December 14th for a rocking youth performance and a lively picket of the BOMA party and Rotunda Building to tell Phil Tagami to get his dirty coal out of the Town. We’ll start at 5PM with a youth-led rhythm brigade and Elfin Uprising followed by a picket and delivery of stockings full of coal.

Phil Tagami once claimed he would never ship coal out of concern for the climate his children will inherit. This holiday season, let’s remind him of what really matters most: our families, our communities, and our planet. He can either deliver on his promise to the next generation – and to the city of Oakland – or he will face an ongoing boycott until he drops his lawsuit.

In this time of anti-Muslim propaganda, what about hearing from real Muslims who live among us? Come hear activist Ahmed Salah speak about how Islam has deeply influenced his philosophy, which is to create social change while preserving life on both sides. Ahmed Salah was one of the primary organizers of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 where hundreds of thousands of protesters filled Tahrir Square, leading to the resignation of an oppressive president. Mr. Salah is the recipient of the Center for Justice and Accountability’s 2013 Champion of Justice Award. There will also be live Middle Eastern music at the event. Let’s listen and discuss together. The event will be held in the historic Fellowship Hall at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists (BFUU).
Program:
7:00 pm – 7:30 pm Middle Eastern music
7:30 pm – 7:45 pm Break
7:45 pm – 8:45 pm Talk by Ahmed Salah
8:45 pm – 9:00 pm Q&A
9:00 pm – 10:00 pm Socializing, book signing
Suggested donation $10-20; no one turned away for lack of funds
Co-sponsored by the BFUU Social Justice and Music Committees

Trump and the GOP’s tax bill is the latest and most brutal attack on working people and the middle class. Bernie Sanders rightly characterized it as an act of ‘class war’. The plan will cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20%, while simultaneously raising the rate on the lowest marginal income-tax bracket from 10% to 12%. In effect, the wealthiest in our society are being given a handout out of the pockets of tens of millions of working people.

Republicans claim that this tax cut will free up businesses to invest in creating new jobs. This is the same old trickle-down economics that has been pushed since the Reagan era. But corporate profits are at record highs, and big business pays some of the lowest effective tax rates in the world. Contrary to the reasoning of Trump and his billionaire friends, the capitalists are sitting on their money and keeping wages stagnant. People can’t afford to pay for basic things they need like housing and health care, child care, or education. The bill shamelessly attacks women’s reproductive rights, attempting to define personhood at conception. We cannot stand for this. Trump and the GOP are willing to let families become homeless, fall into mountainous debt, and let the sick die, all so they can line their pockets and make the biggest heist in modern history.

Wealthy donors, like the Mercers & the Koch Brothers have hired the GOP to mock, beat, belittle, and attack you right now. With that, far too many Democrats in congress have responded as if thousands of lives aren’t at stake. Let’s be clear: lives are at stake. If this passes, untold numbers of people may die. And for what? So the rich can get richer. Larry Summers, Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton and economic advisor to Barack Obama, estimated on Monday that 10,000* people per year would die as a direct result of this legislation if it becomes law. Progressive organizations have placed this estimation far higher**.

Their tax bill does not even pretend to offer anything to the vast majority of Americans. Got a private jet? There’s an exemption for that. But if you’re a grad student making under $30,000 per year, your tax rates will go up 400%. This is what living under capitalism means for us -a 24/7 struggle to pay bills and rent while Wall Street and the 1%, buy our politicians and consolidate their power, condemning the vast majority to poverty. This is not a mistake but a feature of the capitalist system.

So we need to ask ourselves, is this the best we can do? We say no: there’s no reason why we cannot provide for everyone’s basics needs. We have the resources. We live in the richest country in the world. These basic and attainable needs are denied to millions of people because we live in an economic system that values profits over people’s lives? That’s why we’re calling for a national day of action against this tax bill; it’s part of a broader fight for a world where our elected representatives are accountable to the people they serve, not their corporate billionaire backers, and where the immense wealth of this country is democratically used to pay for the things we need and ensure a dignified quality of life for all.

The Republicans think that with their majorities in the House and Senate their naked power grab is all but assured. They assume our democratic institutions are weak, and that Americans will not fight back.

We got word that there will be a March Against Sanctuary Cities, and Against Jose Ines Garcia Zarate after he was acquitted of all murder charges against him.

There group is planning on showing up at 1pm that day, so let’s show up before them and host our own Rally and March in Solidarity with Immigrants!

We need get together on that day and show them what the Bay Area stands up for. We stand in solidarity with Immigrants, Sanctuary Cities, and Refugees from all over the world who want a better life. We have to stand in solidarity with the immigrants, refugees, and police victims. So I ask that you join us at our counter protest to show solidarity.

Please reach out on the FB event if you’d like to endorse or help organize:

With White Nationalist/Alt-Right activity and racist harassment on the rise in our public transportation system, Community Ready Corps (CRC) is calling for a campaign to make BART safe for all.

In just the last month, there were several sightings of BART passengers openly displaying Neo-Nazi symbols (as tattoos, pins, or patches on outer clothing), and one incident of racist harassment that went viral after being caught on tape.

In this video (linked here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLCRq0gGg30), a white BART passenger repeatedly called an Asian passenger a “Chinese n*****” and even physically assaulted him. It took far too long for any bystanders to intervene – and one cowardly white man actually got up and got out of the way, leaving the target of harassment even more vulnerable to the attack.

As a community, we need to prepare ourselves to intervene safely in these situations. Public transportation needs to be safe for all of us. 430,000 Bay Area residents rely on BART to get to work every day. We need to organize collectively to create a climate of safety on BART and send the strong message that the Bay Area is united against hate – that our community won’t tolerate racist intimidation and harassment on BART!

In our next workshop, held Saturday, December 16th from 1 – 4 pm at the ACCE office, we’ll apply the proactive response model we introduced in the first series of workshops (Self Defense, Digital Security & Intelligence Gathering, and Hearts & Minds) to the physical space of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system.

The first half of this workshop will be a training for safe and effective bystander intervention and self defense by Field Marshall Tur-Ha Ak and Deputy Field Marshall Che Bowe. This training is appropriate for anybody of any skill level, and will equip community members with skills they can use to intervene, de-escalate, and defend themselves against racist harassment and violence. We strongly encourage anti-racist white people to come to this training and get skilled up.

In the second half, we’ll break into working groups to begin growing this campaign to #TakeBackBART. Hope to see you there! Please invite your friends to this workshop!

The fight for single-payer healthcare in California is still just beginning. We have momentum, and so far the opposition has been content only to shelve the bill for now. In our neighborhood canvasses, we are knocking every door to talk to every one of our neighbors, amplify the demand for a decommodified healthcare system, and set the stage for the fight to come when those who stand to lose 30 cents of every dollar spent on healthcare by cutting out the private insurance industry.

Strike Debt is building a debt resistance movement. We believe that most individual debt is illegitimate and unjust. Most of us fall into debt because we are increasingly deprived of the means to acquire the basic necessities of life: health care, education, and housing. Because we are forced to go into debt simply in order to live, we think it is right and moral to resist it.

Come get connected with SDBA’s projects!

Presenting debt and inequality related topics at forums, workshops and in radio productions

Promoting single-payer / Medicare for All to end the plague of medical debt

money bail reform and fighting modern day debtors’ prisons and exploitative ticketing and fining schemes

Working on debarring US Banks that have been convicted of felonies from municipal contracts, and divesting from the Wall St. banks

Strike Debt – Principles of Solidarity

Strike Debt is building a debt resistance movement. We believe that most individual debt is illegitimate and unjust. Most of us fall into debt because we are increasingly deprived of the means to acquire the basic necessities of life: health care, education, and housing. Because we are forced to go into debt simply in order to live, we think it is right and moral to resist it.

We also oppose debt because it is an instrument of exploitation and political domination. Debt is used to discipline us, deepen existing inequalities, and reinforce racial, gendered, and other social hierarchies. Every Strike Debt action is designed to weaken the institutions that seek to divide us and benefit from our division. As an alternative to this predatory system, Strike Debt advocates a just and sustainable economy, based on mutual aid, common goods, and public affluence.

Strike Debt is committed to the principles and tactics of political autonomy, direct democracy, direct action, creative openness, a culture of solidarity, and commitment to anti-oppressive language and conduct. We struggle for a world without racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and all forms of oppression.

Strike Debt holds that we are all debtors, whether or not we have personal loan agreements. Through the manipulation of sovereign and municipal debt, the costs of speculator-driven crises are passed on to all of us. Though different kinds of debt can affect the same household, they are all interconnected, and so all household debtors have a common interest in resisting.

Strike Debt engages in public education about the debt-system to counteract the self-serving myth that finance is too complicated for laypersons to understand. In particular, it urges direct action as a way of stopping the damage caused by the creditor class and their enablers among elected government officials. Direct action empowers those who participate in challenging the debt-system.

Strike Debt holds that we owe the financial institutions nothing, whereas, to our friends, families and communities, we owe everything. In pursuing a long-term strategy for national organizing around this principle, we pledge international solidarity with the growing global movement against debt and austerity.

Please join us for our regular bi-weekly Sunflower Alliance meeting. We’ll discuss current campaigns and strategies for the future. We need your participation and your voice! Newcomers and old friends welcome. Please join us for a potluck lunch half an hour before the meeting.

The last Sunday of every month attendees of the OO GA get together a little earlier than usual, at 2 PM (3 PM during DST) to share some food with each other and the community. There should be a table, utensils/plates, meat and veggie entrees and whatnot, courtesy of the Kitchen Committee (such at he is), so just bring yourself, or something to share as well if you’d like.

For reasons of meteorology (rain in November) and convenience we have fused the November fress with the one that would normally be scheduled for December 31st, so this meal is slated for Sunday, dec. 17th at 2PM, barring rain or a police state. I believe swine is on the menu.

The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 3 PM at the Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway in the amphitheater. If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 3:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. During the warmer months we meet at 4 PM at the plaza.The OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for more than five years! Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally . Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.

At the GA committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives come voluntarily report on past and future actions, with discussion. If you like, just come and hear all the organizing being done! Occupy Oakland encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.

General Assembly Standard Agenda

Welcome & Introductions

Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations

Announcements

(Optional) Discussion Topic

Occupy Oakland activities and contact info for some Bay Area Groups with past or present Occupy Oakland members.

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